Burger King Throws Shade at Pennywise After Screening of ‘It’ in Germany (Video)

Burger King Germany hijacked a screening of “It” to turn the record-breaking film into the longest Burger King TV ad of all time.

The fast food chain added an on-screen message to the end of a pre-screening of the film as it was winding down, which read: “The moral is: never trust a clown.” When the Burger King logo appeared, the crowd burst out laughing, because the company was obviously throwing shade at Ronald McDonald.

The video was published by Burger King Germany on Thursday, about a week after Russia sought to ban the film in the country because Pennywise looks too much like Ronald McDonald.

The company claimed that because of the similarity, the film serves as an advertisement for their rival fast food company.

According to Newsweek, Russian financial publication Vedomosti obtained the complaint filed two weeks ago, which read that the “protagonist of the movie is an exact copy” of Ronald McDonald, “including the color range and the [balloons] with which the clown lures children.”

New Line’s “It,” starring Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Clown, has grossed almost $300 million domestically and more than $570 million globally since its debut last month. It broke several records, and has since become the highest grossing horror film of all time.

With the new film "It" in theaters now, we asked John Campopiano -- one of several filmmakers doing a documentary about the 1990 version of Stephen King's "It" -- to take us deep into the history of that TV miniseries. Here are five things we didn't know.

Stephen King has said he decided to make his scary creature a clown because clowns scare children more than anything else. "They do have that kind of monstrous thing going for them," he told Conan O'Brien.

Jonathan Brandis, who portrayed young Bill Denbrough in "It," had worked on another Stephen King film adaptation the year prior. He did the voiceover for the opening scenes of the 1989 film "Pet Sematary."

Tim Curry's Pennywise makeup changed quite a bit during the production. It went from being very dramatic and articulated to more subdued. Curry had recently worked on the film "Legend" and was not excited about being in a lot of makeup again. He and director Tommy Lee Wallace agreed that he would have minimal makeup.

Despite being set in Derry, Maine, the miniseries was actually shot in and around Vancouver, British Columbia.

Many fans dislike the ending of the miniseries, specifically the scenes involving the giant spider. Even cast and crew members, including Wallace, have expressed disappointment with how it came together.

Bonus: King once had his own scary interaction with a clown: a man dressed as Ronald McDonald once said next to him on a first-class flight, lit up a cigarette and ordered a gin and tonic. He told King he had come "from McDonaldland."

With the new film “It” in theaters, we look back at the miniseries that made everyone hate clowns

With the new film "It" in theaters now, we asked John Campopiano -- one of several filmmakers doing a documentary about the 1990 version of Stephen King's "It" -- to take us deep into the history of that TV miniseries. Here are five things we didn't know.